Trick or Treat

The girls are going out tonight as matching fairy princesses.

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I think these are super cute costumes - the tights add the perfect touch. And Leia is thrilled because she gets to look just like her big sister. She doesn't understand what trick-or-treating is yet; she's going to be even happier about 6:05 tonight.

Naia and her {very temporary} face tattoo

Naia thinks Halloween should be a national holiday - and, probably more importantly, a school holiday. She's been trying to convince me all day that she has tomorrow off for Halloween. I'm not buying it. But after all the sugar kids will consume tonight, teachers everywhere are going to wish they had the day off.

Happy Ghosts and Goblins Day!

Edited to add: Success! Leia loved trick-or-treating. It took her about two houses to figure out what was going on. After that, she had her basket front and center - and her 'thank you's' loud and clear. We went up and down our street, then brought Leia home so Matt and Naia could continue on with some friends. I thought Leia would try to eat herself sick on her overflowing Elmo basket of goodies, but she surprised me. She tried 2 Skittles - spit them both out - and then ate a Reese's peanut butter cup and she was done. She helped answer the door for about 30 minutes before we retreated to my craft room and watched Elmo videos with Leia snuggled up on my lap with her blankie. I love kids at this age!

Halloween Silliness

Leia is fascinated by the dancing Frankenstein we have by the front door. She plays it over and over, dancing with whomever is within arms reach. It's a riot but I'm going to be happy when I can put ol' Frank away for the year (and get that tune out of my head.)

Felted Treasure

Stopped by Deborah's studio to drop some stuff off and walked out with this - a woven, felted wrap that had my name written all over it. I love the look of it - the colors and the asymmetry - but even more, I love how comfortable it is to wear. I foresee this getting a lot of use.

FO!

Finally got pictures of the lacy Tunisian scarf I finished a week or so ago. The pattern is 'Tara's Tunisian Scarf' from Interweave's Crochet Accessories 2010. I used a heavier yarn and bigger hook; very pleased with how it turned out. This was my first time using Supreme 'Possum Merino' and I loved it. Great stitch definition and drape. Hope Rach likes it as much as I do.

Darn Cute Pin Cushion

I needed a pin cushion for my bobbin lace kit, so I grabbed a small ball of wool that I spun while working the Guild's county fair booth this year,

Top side

crocheted the rounds, stuffed them with fiberfill and tossed them in the washer with super hot water. Once they came out of the dryer, I added vintage buttons from my stash, some yarny details, and voila! Darn cute pin cushions made with stuff I had laying around the house.

Bottom side

I was surprised that my little bit of handspun was enough to make three of these. The flower-shaped cushion is mine; I gifted the others to my bobbin lace buddies. The original pattern (on Ravelry here; non-Ravelry link here) wasn't felted but I needed something less open to keep my tiny lace pins from sliding away into the batting, never to be seen again. Very fun, easy project. I'm super pleased with how these turned out.

Yarn Fumes

The yarn I bought yesterday - is well on its way to becoming a new shawl - which will be #14 (I think) for the year.

The picture on the pattern - which has the very descriptive, romantic name of Bernat #4922 - does nothing for it. Fortunately, another Raveler posted a picture of her FO, and it is gorgeous. I worked on this all last night and plan to finish it either tonight or tomorrow. Love the yarn and the pattern so much I can't put it down. I'm blaming the yarn fumes.

Books and Yarn

But no yarn books, darn it.

Hubby organized a book and yarn store crawl for today's date day. First stop was the Iliad Bookshop in N. Hollywood, which advertises having 100,000 books in stock. Hubby thought he'd found the motherlode -

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multiple shelves of books on watches and more shelves on woodworking. (The white book with no name on the spine is on Cartier watches.) As for me? Bah humbug. Their entire selection of textile craft books consisted of two crochet books, one knitting book and nothing on weaving, spinning, bobbin lace or any other textile arts. Oh well, the hubs was very (very) pleased with his finds.

Lunch was at a small deli we found by accident; it was next door to what was supposed to be a yarn shop (bad Google) but was actually a hair salon. Marv's Deli has been in business since 1954 (a very good year); the chicken noodle soup was good and Herman piled the freshly cut roast beef super-high on the sandwiches. We each ate half a sandwich and brought the other halves home for dinner.

Fortunately for me, Google didn't mislead us about the Stitch Cafe. It was alive and well; a small shop with a nice, upscale selection of yarns and friendly staff. I found one yarn that needed to come home with me - Zauberball Starke 6. There's only 437 yards in this ball (and at $34 I wasn't buying two) so I think this will become a small shawl, just enough to keep my neck warm.

Doubt I'd go back here though; I've been spoiled by Anacapa Fine Yarns, Loop and Leaf, and Unwind where they wind your yarn for you; let you look at books before you buy them; and don't have 'don't do this' signs up all over the store. I'm glad I went, glad I found a yarny treasure, and glad I have local yarn stores that I love.

Tombstone, CA

Hubby came up with the idea for these tombstones several years ago and they've been our go-to Halloween decorations ever since. We both love the corniness of the epitaphs. This year Naia helped with the decorating (while her very cranky sister* took a much needed, very long nap.) In addition to tombstone planting, Naia draped the entire interior of the house with black and orange crepe paper. Lily Kitty is delighted with the paper tails hanging just out of her reach; she's sure Naia did that just.for.her. I think Team Naia did a very nice job.


*Leia is a huge fan of Sesame Street's Elmo. I found this Halloween basket at my local Target. Perfect for trick-or-treating and then as an addition to the baby grand's toy box.

A Pirate's Life For Me

Friday night, the four of us went to Pirate's Dinner Adventure in Buena Park for the first time. It's right next door to Medieval Times, which we've done numerous times. We thought it would fun to trade knights and horses for boats and pirates. The show was ok (very loud, but lots of audience participation especially with kids on stage) but the 3-course dinner was much better than expected, with a choice of chicken with rice or BBQ pork with mashed potatoes, and apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert.

Being Friday night, it took us 3 hours to drive down to Orange County - but less than an hour to get back home after the show. Which show would I recommend, Knights or Pirates? The show is better at Medieval Times (love the horses) but the food is better at Pirates. For me, Medieval Times would win. For Marie? I'm betting she'd vote for pirates every time.

Sticks and Bobbins

I finished my first bobbin lace bookmark (in-progress pix here)

Crummy middle-of-the-night, lousy lighting shot

and started a second. Winding yarn on the bobbins almost takes longer than making the lace - once I remembered how to get started again, that is. Still lovin' the bobbin lace. Next up? Maybe this bracelet from WeaveZine.

The Merino and Possum yarn (not the U.S. kind of possum; this kind of possum) that Vickie brought me from her New Zealand trip finally told me what it wants to be - a Tunisian scarf for Rachel. I saw the pattern in the new Interweave Crochet Accessories and immediately thought of this yarn. Funny how the mind works that way. The pattern is almost the same as the La Mer scarf I made earlier in the year. The magazine has some great patterns, including a few that are must-makes for me; you can see all the projects on Ravelry here.

And last, fresh out of the bread machine, my first loaf of sweet bread. I had a couple ounces of chocolate chips hiding out in the cupboard, so I threw them in in lieu of the milk chocolate the recipe called for. We'll see in the morning how this tastes. But hey, it's chocolate; how bad could it be???

Little Missy

It's a girl! Grandbaby #6, due February 17, will be our fourth granddaughter.
I got to go with mom and dad for the ultrasound appointment on Monday. They didn't have these new-fangled things waaay back when I was having kids. (Well, they did; but it had to be a medical necessity, which fortunately excluded me.)
I'd never seen an in-progress ultrasound before and it was very cool. Little Missy was quite cooperative, moving all around and us giving nice views of all her important parts, like head, heart and bones - along with her cute little baby toes. Little baby toes have always been my favorite. Isn't she a doll??

Rain!

To non-Californians this is no big deal. But in So.Cal. rain and thunder don't happen all that often. We need to make a big production about it when we get the chance. Sure wish the cable teevee wasn't out, so I could watch the newsie's being all dramatic about Storm Watch 2010. Makes me laugh every time.
The wet stuff lasted maybe 5 minutes. It's still cloudy and damp out, but I bet we're done with anything more than just drizzles.

Hats and Hippos

Aren't cell phones wonderful? When it comes to pictures, anyway. Here's a few pics of my favorite cuties, all received via cell phone over the weekend.

Leia - it was fire safety day at preschool.

Addy - Daddy replaced the hippo sponge she lost awhile back.

Cele - wearing the pumpkin hat I made him. He's so cute, even when he's ticked off.

Food and Fiber

• New Tunisian scarf finished, blocked and in the shop, all ready for class on November 13. I'm calling this the 'Starlight Tunisian' scarf; pattern will be available shortly. I'd planned to give this to Rach, if she likes it; textured blue wool and silk - so soft and snuggly.

• My first loaf of bread from the new-to-me bread machine a friend gave me. It smells so gooooooood. Waiting for hubby to get home from the movies before I cut into it. He better hurry - not sure my willpower will hold up much longer.

• My new love - bobbin lace. This bookmark is the week 3 project in our twice-monthly class, working on the diagonal for the first time. And I got it!! Hoping to finish this off and start another bookmark this weekend. So.Much.Fun.

Edited to add: this is the bread, five minutes after hubby and daughter got home. Yummmmmmmmm.